How printscreen works / How to catch transparent windows !

Question

I want to take a full screen shot and i cannot catch the semi-transparent windows (like tweetdeck or avast notifications). I see that print screen function of windows can. I tried with api call for GetDesktopWindow() or using a bitmap from Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds, but with no success. Thank you!

Answer 1

You need to use CopyPixelOperation.SourceCopy | CopyPixelOperation.CaptureBlt to also capture layered windows. Unfortunately this doesn't work, they fumbled the argument validation code. The unhappy alternative is to P/Invoke the required code. Here's a sample form that does that:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace WindowsApplication1 {
  public partial class Form1 : Form {
    public Form1() {
      InitializeComponent();
    }
    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
      Size sz = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Size;
      IntPtr hDesk = GetDesktopWindow();
      IntPtr hSrce = GetWindowDC(hDesk);
      IntPtr hDest = CreateCompatibleDC(hSrce);
      IntPtr hBmp = CreateCompatibleBitmap(hSrce, sz.Width, sz.Height);
      IntPtr hOldBmp = SelectObject(hDest, hBmp);
      bool b = BitBlt(hDest, 0, 0, sz.Width, sz.Height, hSrce, 0, 0, CopyPixelOperation.SourceCopy | CopyPixelOperation.CaptureBlt);
      Bitmap bmp = Bitmap.FromHbitmap(hBmp);
      SelectObject(hDest, hOldBmp);
      DeleteObject(hBmp);
      DeleteDC(hDest);
      ReleaseDC(hDesk, hSrce);
      bmp.Save(@"c:\temp\test.png");
      bmp.Dispose();
    }

    // P/Invoke declarations
    [DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
    static extern bool BitBlt(IntPtr hdcDest, int xDest, int yDest, int
    wDest, int hDest, IntPtr hdcSource, int xSrc, int ySrc, CopyPixelOperation rop);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern bool ReleaseDC(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hDc);
    [DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr DeleteDC(IntPtr hDc);
    [DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr DeleteObject(IntPtr hDc);
    [DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr CreateCompatibleBitmap(IntPtr hdc, int nWidth, int nHeight);
    [DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr CreateCompatibleDC(IntPtr hdc);
    [DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr SelectObject(IntPtr hdc, IntPtr bmp);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern IntPtr GetDesktopWindow();
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern IntPtr GetWindowDC(IntPtr ptr);
  }
}